388 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE 
Rural New-Yorker, 
TIMES BUILDING, NEW YORK. 
A National Weekly Journal for Country and Suburban Homes 
ELBERT S. CARMAN, 
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD, 
EDITORS. 
Rural Publishing Company: 
LAWSON VALENTINE, President. RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
THE AMERICAN GARDEN, 
EDGAR H. LIBBY, Manager. OUT-DOOR BOOKS. 
Copyright, 1890, by the Rural Publishing Company. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1890. 
The man who rides on the handles of his 
cultivator will never pay for a seat in a pal¬ 
ace car out of the profits of his crop. Shallow 
culture pays. 
We learn that J. A. Everitt & Co., Indianapolis, 
Ind., announce that they have stopped payment. 
This is the firm that was angry with the R. N.-Y. 
because it stated that the Yankee Prolific Oats, 
offered by it as new, were in fact the Russian 
White ; that Martin’s Amber, offered by the con¬ 
cern as a new wheat, was the Armstrong or 
Landreth. The gentlemen also declined to sell us 
a small lot of their new Six Weeks Market Potato 
for trial. It may be remembered by our readers 
that we took occasion, not long since, to remark 
that such a method of conducting business did not 
seem likely to inspire confidence or lead to a per¬ 
manent success. 
There is a perfect plague of insects about the 
Rural Grounds this year. The flea beetles are 
thicker than ever before, and our striped friends 
from Colorado are on hand in millions. We have 
never seen so many “ green head ” and othei flies 
that torture cattle and horses. The cows come 
home at night with necks and shoulders perfectly 
raw from the attacks of these pests. We bathe the 
wounds with warm water and then sprinkle pow¬ 
dered zinc over the raw places. The horses, too, 
are severely bitten between the hind legs. If the 
plague continues we shall be forced to practice soil¬ 
ing for all our animals, cutting grass night and 
morning and feeding in the stables. 
In all legislatures the world over, the question 
with regard to any proposed law should be, not 
“Is it socialistic?” "but “Is it good? Will it 
benefit the majority of the people without doing an 
injustice to the minority ?” While socialistic 
schemes for the reformation of society are, no 
doubt, as a whole, impracticable in these days, 
many socialistic conceptions are eminently worthy 
of consideration by the statesmen of the world. 
The projects of the alchemists of old were vain and 
visionary ; hut what a debt of gratitude do not the 
chemists of to-day owe to their labors ? After all, 
what will the ideal government of the glorious 
“coming race” be ? From Plato to Bellamy, have 
not all the men of philosophy as well as the men of 
imagination who dreamt of it, pictured it as social¬ 
istic, and the creator, therefore, of an earthly 
paradise ? 
The world has more than its share of unhandy 
men who can do nothing well. Their work hurts 
the labor market just as any poor product injures 
trades in a better kind. At tne same time, where 
poor workmen abound the really capable man is 
sure to be singled out and appreciated. Why have 
we so many unskillful workmen ? What consti¬ 
tutes the difference between handiness and unhand¬ 
iness ? It is a matter of education and training. 
We do not mean text-book education—the handy 
man generally knows least about the rules which 
our teachers have prescribed ; but we mean the 
habit of observing and thinking. Many of our schools 
are “ graduating” boys who have been taught such 
a reverence for text-books that they have come to 
believe that all knowledge is contained in these 
volumes. It is from the ranks of such boys that 
unhandy men come. The handy men are taught 
from childhood to think and observe and reason 
from natural causes. What is our school system 
doing about this ? 
Some months ago we gave an account of the farm¬ 
ers’ movement in South Carolina. The farmers met 
and nominated a State ticket of their own. It was 
proposed to try to force the Democratic convention 
into an indorsement of the farmers’ candidates. As 
we pointed out, the Southern white man will break 
away from the Democratic party only as a last, 
desperate resort. The convention will be held next 
week and a bitter struggle is anticipated. Three 
weeks ago it was thought that the farmers were sure 
to secure the nomination of their ticket. Since 
then, however, the Farmers’ Alliance of Alabama 
has met with defeat in its effort to nominate Agri¬ 
cultural Commissioner Kolb for Governor. Mr. 
Kolb led all the other candidates in the convention, 
but he could not quite secure a majority. The 
leaders of the old party succeeded in uniting upon 
one of their candidates and he was nominates Mr. 
Kolb promised to support the successful candidate, 
which must be considered a singular action after 
what he has said in his canvass about the failure of 
the dominant party to help the farmer. The party 
managers in South Carolina have taken fresh cour¬ 
age from the result in Alabama and will endeavor 
to use the same tactics in defeating the farmers of 
their own State. If they succeed, will the farmers 
simply turn in and promise to support the “suc¬ 
cessful candidate ?” If they do, the R. N.-Y. feels 
that they will make a great mistake. 
On another page a New York State farmer takes 
issue with Mr. Dibble regarding the most econom¬ 
ical method of handling the corn crop. This cor¬ 
respondent proposes to cut down the cost of the 
crop by throwing out the work of husking and 
shocking, and making the cows do the shelling and 
grinding. It is quite likely that this method of 
handling the crop is the best that this farmer can 
adopt. Situated as he is, with a large herd of 
cows to he fed and milked, it is probable that he 
can employ his hired men to good advantage in the 
work he describes. While this may be an admir¬ 
able arrangement for a dairy farm, it might not 
work at all with such farming as Mr. Dibble fol¬ 
lows. It is possible that both are right, and that 
both are handling the corn crop in the way that 
best fits in with their farming methods. People 
who believe in the silo will be inclined to criticise 
both men for feeding the dry stalks and grain. 
Who is right ? The fact is there is no iron-clad 
rule that can safely be laid down to guide farmers 
in such a matter. All such rules must be tested by 
individual study and experiment. 
There is a loud cry just now from many farmers 
against the proposed appropriations for a new 
navy. ‘ 4 Do our farmers want ironclads or bridges, 
roads or ditches ?” This is a typical question, and 
the man who asks it has the following to say on the 
printed slip sent us : “ The same iron that makes 
ironclads would make bridges ; the same labor and 
skill can build us aqueducts and flumes and roads ; 
the same brains that design our implements of des¬ 
truction can devote their energies to diminishing 
the illiteracy of our 6,000,000 of illiterates.” All 
this is very true. The ironclads will never add to 
the wheat crop, nor will they eliminate the middle¬ 
man. Still, as the world is at present constituted, 
this country must be prepared to assert her rights 
if occasion demands. Uncle Sam has no great love 
for fighting, but there is not one of us that would 
not feel ashamed and deeply humiliated to see him 
obliged to run from some little whipper-snapper 
of a country that kept its navy in good shape. No, 
we need a good navy. Look elsewhere for foolish 
and extravagant appropriations to chop off. A 
near-sighted man can see them easily enough. 
Every town of respectable size is calling for an ap¬ 
propriation for a public building. Many of these 
demands are’absurdly ridiculous and would never 
be submitted were it not for the fact that a great 
many Congressmen realize that their political life 
depends upon their securing appropriations for pub¬ 
lic buildings. This is the sort of extravagance you 
should try to stamp out. Begin at home; don’t try 
to get new buildings in your own town and cut off 
those designed for the next village. It is the money 
spent on these new buildings that should go for 
4 4 bridges, roads and ditches ” By the way, how 
many farmers would be willing to have the general 
government step in and do their road making for 
them ? 
Last Wednesday Secretary Rusk, during a visit 
to this city, imparted excellent news to the cattle 
owners of the nation by declaring that contagious 
pleuro pneumonia had at last been stamped out 
everywhere in the country, except in three little 
districts on Long Island, and that vigorous meas¬ 
ures had already been set on foot to extirpate it 
there in quick order. 44 Indeed,” said the Secretary, 
“the disease is already practically killed in the 
United States.” The most serious losses due to 
it here were those incurred on account of the 
hindrance it frequently caused to our domestic 
cattle trade, and the embargo it inflicted on the 
free exportation of our cattle to Europe. Ever 
since the first outbreak of the plague, in 1878, all 
American cattle arriving in the United Kingdom— 
which has always nearly monopolized our trans- 
Atlantic cattle trade—have had to be slaughtered 
at the port of debarkation within 10 days after 
landing, and this provision of the English law has 
caused an average loss of from $10 to $15 per head 
to American shippers. All along there have been 
loud and frequent complaints at these “unjust” 
restrictions on our export trade, on the ground that 
the stock in only small, well defined areas in a few 
States were affected, and that cattle from the rest 
of the country could be easily exported without in¬ 
curring any danger of contagion. It has also been 
constantly asserted that immediately after the 
extirpation of the disease here, the embargo 
would certainly be removed. This, however, 
is very doubtful. Last Thursday a deputation of 
Scotch graziers called on Mr. Chaplin, Minister of 
Agriculture, to urge the speedy free admission of 
American store cattle to be fattened on their rich 
Lowland pastures. Similar deputations of English 
graziers having fine pasture-land near the ports of 
debarkation, have lately called on the Secretary; 
but in all cases he has declared that the government 
has absolutely no intention of relaxing the strin¬ 
gency of the present laws; that while a consider¬ 
able number of Scotch and English graziers were 
JUNE 14 
urgent for the admission of store cattle from this 
country in order to turn their pastures to more 
profitable account, the vast majority of the cattle 
owners of the country were strongly opposed to 
unrestricted competition with American cattle. 
Finally the Secretary firmly declared that even if 
pleuro pneumonia were completely extirpated from 
every State in the Union, a change in the British 
prohibitory laws would be highly improbable. 
Whenever the plague shall be stamped out here 
with absolute certainty, no doubt strong diplomatic 
pressure will be brought to bear on the English 
government to secure the removal of the embargo; 
but in view of the prospective increase of our tariff 
on English goods, there may be a great deal of 
difficulty in obtaining this concession. 
Last Thursday the Lower House of Congress, by 
a vote of 124 to 118, decided to take a final vote on 
the Silver Bill to-day. The House Bill, as amended, 
directs the purchase of $4,500,000 worth of silver 
bullion every month, to be paid for by silver certi¬ 
ficates, redeemable in coin, and made legal tender 
for all debts, public and private, except where 
otherwise especially stipulated in the contract. The 
Secretary of the Treasury is empowered to redeem 
them also in silver bullion at the market price, and 
is to coin enough of such bullion to redeem the 
silver notes ; but the law requiring him go coin 
$2,000,000 per month is repealed. If silver goes up 
to par—that is 3713^ grains of silver for $1—then the 
coinage shall be free ; that is. the owner of any sil¬ 
ver bullion may deposit it at any of the mints and 
have it coined into standard silver dollars for his 
own benefit. The bill also provides that the $60,- 
000,000 held for the redemption of National bank 
notes shall be added to the general fund already in 
the Treasury, If the bill becomes law, it is to go 
into effect 30 days after its passage. It is certain to 
pass the House substantially in its present form ; 
but the free coinage men in the Senate are likely to 
offer a strenuous opposition to the redemption of 
silver certificates in bullion. Of course, all the 
arguments against a bimetallic standard of value, 
are vehemently recapitulated by the opposition press; 
but although the free coinage of silver is on all 
hands considered dead, at least for the present ses¬ 
sion of Congress, a bill very closely approximating 
such a measure is certain to be passed. There is no 
doubt, however, that the silver mine owners—the 
silver kings—will be by far the greatest beneficiaries 
of the law, and very little doubt that the era of in¬ 
flation about to begin, will greatly stimulate all 
kinds of industries, and lead to a vast amount of 
speculation, especially in the precious metals. 
BREVITIES. 
The wise employee silent keeps. 
He little says, his thoughts he heaps ; 
He keeps at work, he never shirks, 
Patience he borrows from the Turks. 
But. greatest test of wisdom, he 
Laughs loud and long and merrily, 
And risks fell Apoplexy’s stroke 
When his employer cracks a Joke. 
Lie abed in June, doleful harvest tune. 
Rub brains on the handles of your cultivator. 
The grass-fed horse has lots of fat to work off. 
We are putting the second dressing of fertilizer on our 
potatoes. 
Henry Stewart says there is, or was, a patent on the 
process of baling manure. 
Bear in mind that the Society of American Florists will 
meet in Boston in August. 
Can those who have to do without ice be said to take 
cold comfort from the 44 hot wave ? ” 
Manufacturers of eatables make more money on what 
people waste than on what they eat. 
Anything that cannot show two sides is too thin to 
have any side worth considering at all. 
Judging from plants set the past spring, Michel’s Early 
will rank among the earliest of strawberries. 
Better put wheels on the back end of the cultivator so 
that it cannot be pushed down into the ground too far. 
Many a lot of eggs has been spoiled because the ther¬ 
mometer In the incubator was about four degrees out of 
the way. 
If any of onr readers have had experience in growing 
honeysuckles from seeds, we should be pleased to hear 
from them. 
TRY thinning fruit on a few trees this year. Mr. Pow¬ 
ell, you will observe, has found a place where the boy can 
beat a man at valuable work. 
What would Mr. Grundy do if he lived in a school dis¬ 
trict where a majority of the people looked upon the 
teacher 14 as a cowboy would look upon a Latin dictionary !” 
Would he move away ? 
We begin, this week, a new department, see page 393, 
which is to be devoted to the interests of breeders, feeders 
and sellers of live stock. We hope to make this depart¬ 
ment unique and interesting and shall welcome notes from 
farmers and stockmen. 
Sunset, as it is now blooming at the Rural Grounds, ap¬ 
proaches as closely to a perfect rose—for out door bloom¬ 
ing—as any we are familiar with. Its color is a feeble 
yellow tinted with a delicate salmon. The petals are wax¬ 
like, of good substance and recurve most gracefully. 
We have a great volunteer crop of potatoes. There was 
hardly frost enough last winter to kill the tubers left in 
the soil by the diggers; now they are up everywhere. 
Why not plant a patch of early potatoes in November, and 
cover with straw and horse mauure, plowing a little soil 
over the young plants as a protection against late frosts ? 
The American Association of Nurserymen has just 
closed a successful meeting in this city. Whether by acci¬ 
dent or design we know not, the papers read contained in¬ 
formation of interest to fruit-growers rather than to 
nurserymen. The society is evidently in a very vigorous 
condition, and should be able to do much for the trade. 
It is folly, as recommended by a writer in the Domestic 
Economy department, to use powdered white hellebore to 
destroy the currant worm or any other insect. A pailful 
(two gallons) of water with a heaping table-spoonful of 
the powdered hellebore stirred in, will suffice for 30 bushes. 
A pound of the hellebore dusted on them would scarcely 
golBO far, while it would prove less effective. 
